


there's no title for this one bc i'm in the middle of nowhere

by alex_archer



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, technically tim dies, zombie au pls it's bad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:55:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22965781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alex_archer/pseuds/alex_archer
Summary: tim's a zombie.... sorta... and nisha's gay i'm posting this as fast as i can on a mobile hotspot leaf me alonetim @ me and nisha @ pandoranmama
Relationships: Timothy Lawrence/Nisha
Kudos: 4





	there's no title for this one bc i'm in the middle of nowhere

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PandoranMama](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PandoranMama/gifts).



Nisha felt the bile growing in her throat as she tried to work on blocking out his screams. She did her best to move fast, affixing a makeshift tourniquet from a drawstring and a stick. His high-pitched wails came through his gasps for air, and she could only imagine the pain searing through his limbs as the infection spread. She was very aware of the dark veining spreading towards where she blocked the blood flow, but she was also aware they were racing against and unknown amount of time. She'd seen people bitten survive the bite, by stopping the spread and then removing the limb. Now, as she wound the tourniquet just above the blue lines of his precious tattoo, she couldn't stop trying to remember whether any of those people had survived the blood loss of losing a limb. Could she put Timothy through that? Just for the unsure chance of possibly saving his life?

Her hesitation and pause had him opening his eyes to stare at her, and she stared back, “Nish! Just cut it off! Get it off! Please!! It _hurts!”_ Another bout of pain ran through him and he bucked up, arching his back and writhing through the agony. His screams cut into her like a knife, and she tried not to focus on how bloodshot his eyes already were. The way the foam already gathered at the sides of his lips... his lips... The infection was spreading too fast, despite her attempts to save him. She knew it, and her companions knew it too.

“Yer gon have to kill 'im, sweetheart.”

Their callous attitudes were a defense mechanism, she knew that, but she still barked back at them, “You raise a gun to him and I'll kill you both where you stand.”

Taking a step back, the two other men exchanged glances Nisha could _feel_ out of the corner of her eye. She knew she had less than five minutes to deal with this. She had less than five minutes to say goodbye to the only man she'd ever loved, the only good thing to ever come into her life to stay. Even this had been ruined. As she approached coming to terms with what she faced, she cooed out a few hushing noises and reached out to smooth his hair away from his forehead. He fought against the pain, but he still instinctively moved into her touch. His sobbing shook his whole body, and his tears mixed with sweat to create a slick layer of wet under her hands, but she didn't mind.

“Nisha... _please..._ kill me before... before I turn,” Timothy's voice was weak, shaking with the effort of forming the words. His soft brown eyes no longer looked up at her, and the fire raving through his veins must have evened out to a dull pain. He still trembled, but his skin was lifeless now. The usual blush was gone, and his freckles stood out against the gray-white like red pepper on paper. His lips were almost purple, and his breath came over them in irregular bursts. The silence, in absence of his screams, was haunting. Breaking through, the sound of a gun cocking behind Nisha set her in motion.

She moved fast, her fingers finding the gun at her hip and resting in the trigger cradle. She spun, raising the barrel before the other knew what was happening. She identified who'd readied his weapon and shot him through the throat, a gurgle of blood trickling out as she turned to the other. Before he could pull his weapon, Nisha fired a shot through his heart. Both bodies hit the ground at the same time, the first man's prolonged death was punishment for defying her. Still, the speed at which she finished the job was all it took for Timothy's infection to make its way past the tourniquet and up into his shoulder. The dark veining weaved under his shirt and out through his neckline. Through the tears in the material, she watched the darkness snake into his chest. The disease pooled into a black spot over where his heart struggled to continue to beat, and she leaned down just as the infection weaved across his jaw and temple. Pressing a soft kiss to lips, she fumbled to place the barrel of her gun to his chin.

She sobbed, her tears falling onto his cheeks as she pressed her forehead to his. She could hear his heart, the beats getting further and further apart. If it weren't for the silence in the room, she never would have heard his final breaths leave his soft lips carrying her name one last time. The cry that left her own lips pierced through, replacing his from before. She knew she only had minutes, she needed to pull the trigger before he turned. She couldn't handle seeing him like that, a raving monster. _She_ was supposed to be the monster, everyone had told her that since she was a kid, or they made her feel like it at least. He never did. He saw in her what she only just barely was beginning to see in herself, he saw the light in the night.

She couldn't do it. The clatter of the gun on the floor told her she dropped it before her fingers realized, and she sat back. Pulling his body up onto her lap she held him as she cried. She wrapped her arms around him and desperately begged for the warmth to return to him, to warm her like he used to. The memories of before the outbreak shot into her mind, images of the brief few years they'd spent together. The sound of his laugh rang out through her mind, and she swore she could hear him whispering in her ear that he loved her.

Screaming against his hair, she took a full breath in of him. The smell of his favorite natural oil-infused soap he _insisted_ on continuing to use, despite the fall of civilization. The smell of him, even the smell of his sweat. Everything culminated into _him,_ and she loved him. She loved him more than anything she'd ever thought she could love, and she wasn't ready to let go. Steeling herself up, Nisha sat back. She gently let him lay back down on the ground, the small rasping moans escaping his mouth told her he'd turned already. She had moments before he was going to be biting at her throat. Nisha's trembling disappeared as she moved with expert precision.

As much as she hates how she became so good in disastrous situations, Nisha was grateful. She undid the tourniquet around his arm, watching as his skin refused to bounce back from the tension. The once thriving vitality now twitched under the control of this fucking disease. She tossed the turning stick aside and moved to flip his body over, cursing at how _heavy_ he was. Still, she pulled his arms back, reaching down to grab his ankles and draw them up to level with his wrists. Nisha wrapped the rope around and around, securing it with a knot only a knife would be able to undo. As a final thought, Nisha reached for her back, dumping the contents on the ground and sliding the canvas down over his head. She knotted the handles around his throat, so he wouldn't be able to toss it off his head. Leaning down once more, she placed a last kiss through the fabric to his head.

A snarl escaped his mouth and Nisha jumped back just in time to avoid the thrashing. New life surged through him, tossing his body side to side as he tried to escape his bindings. She stood to watch, her heart nearly stopping as she saw the blood pooling around the restraint. She knew these things, these _zombies,_ would do anything to get to food, but she didn't want him to rip right through his own limbs to do so. Just as she went to try and stop him, she watched as his body stilled to a simple idleness. The gargling sounds of growls evening out to a resting state, the new state of being for her boyfriend.

Now, Nisha was faced with the greatest challenge of her life, keeping herself alive and keeping Timothy un-dead. If she could study him, study this condition, she was convinced she could do something to help him and others. She was smart, and just crazy enough to manage it, “Alright, handsome. Let's get started...”

* * *

Red. Nisha only ever saw red, which is what she imagined he saw to. Maybe he saw in black and white, but could register red like bulls could. Whatever it was, she found very quickly that he was mostly docile in red light. She'd raided a high school for their developing room's lights, setting up a semi-dark room for her and Timothy to base in. That had been terrible, but at least she'd managed to make it out alive- mostly.

Since Timothy's death, she'd learned more than she cared to have learned in a lifetime. Unfortunately, she _did_ end up finding out she could survive a bite by removing the offending limb. Now she sported a rather becoming prosthetic where her left arm used to hang. The best part of the apocalypse was heath care was free, but also self-sufficient. Once she'd recovered from removing her arm, she'd made her way to a hospital to find something she could use in place of it. It had been eighty seven days since she pulled the last of her stitches out.

Today, as she made her way back into the red room, she was hoping to record the progress she'd made the day before. Nisha didn't want to jinx it, not until she could reproduce the effect. Still, she was starting off hopeful, firing up her recorder she burst through the doors, “Heya, handsome!”

She'd grown used to the cacophony of snarling and growling that sapped from him whenever she entered the room, and she'd slowly gotten over the smell as well. The level of decomposition that he'd come to meant there was a horrid stench in the whole room, but she could deal with is long as it meant getting him back. She longed for the days she'd make fun of him for the expensive soaps he used, for the scent of him mixed in with that sweet cinnamon and vanilla. She used to tease him, saw he smelled like a dessert she could sink her teeth into. Now, that joke seemed in bad taste, literally.

“Well, cowboy. We made it to day one hundred and sixty nine! There was once a time you would have giggled at that. You never were very mature in the way of jokes, but you were when it mattered to be. Still, no _mature_ person enjoyed _Abba_ as much as you did,” Nisha moved to flick the generator on. With a whir, the power surged through the room and the warmth of the red lights filled the area. The snapping settled down to a minor grumbling, and the sounds of _'Mama Mia'_ drowned him out soon enough. Another thing she'd learned early on is even though Timothy couldn't recognize her, he still remembered the '80s music he loved so much. Perhaps the question on whether he loved disco or Nisha more was finally put to rest, of course she _knew_ in her heart she'd beat Madonna every time.

“You hungry, kid?” Nisha stepped to the freezer and pulled out the nicest piece of meat she could see. Another one of the best parts of the apocalypse? If you had a zombie boyfriend, there was no shortage of bodies out there to feed to him. She turned around, pausing with closed eyes as she prepared herself for the sight of it. No matter how many times Nisha tried to convince herself she was used to it, the sight of Timothy tearing into raw meat like it was the only thing that mattered was wrong at the very core. The man she'd fallen in love with couldn't harm a mouse, he'd been vegetarian since he was a kid, and she knew if he ever _did_ come back learning what he'd eat would kill him.

As such, she'd tried to feed him a diet of mostly animals, hoping that if he came back learning he'd not eaten humans would sit better with him. That was when she found out the hard way that these creatures _need_ human meat, something about it kept the decomposition at bay. Now, she fed him a sole diet of human flesh, which kept his body from getting worse, but hadn't yet begun to reverse it like she hoped. Yet still, just halting the decaying was an achievement, something worth the emotion of having eaten humans. She'll never tell him what actually happened to her arm after she cut it off.

But now, as she opened her eyes Nisha faced the thing she hated most of the day. He was back at the bars, his mouth frothing to his chin and his eyes were wild. The red light helped some, if he was in white light he'd be raging, but still he broke her heart every day. Slipping to the bars, she kicked the metal. The sound rang through and forced him back, allowing her to get close and toss what looked like a femur through the bars. Timothy fell to his knees and tore into it, devouring the meat to the bone like it was cotton candy on a stick. She fought the sick threatening to well up into her throat, and she turned to focus on other things. However, as she heard the ripping of meat finish, she turned to him again. What she saw was more surprising than anything she'd seen since he turned.

On the floor of the cage, she saw the meat rendered from the bone. All of it had been torn to shreds, but from what she could tell none of it had been eaten. Instead, he stood there staring at her. His head tilted to the side, and his eyes seemed almost life-like. If it wasn't for looking like a walking corpse, she might say he was as curious as Tim used to be.

His curiosity had been what got him killed. She warned him not to follow the noise he heard, not to go into that room. He'd gone, and she'd let him. With a curt confirmation, she allowed him to follow the sound. Her mind traveled back to that day, almost half a year ago, and seeing him come back through the door. He shouted, trying to defend himself as he tripped and landed on his back with the monster above him. She'd drawn her weapon, but not before the beast sunk his teeth in her lover's forearm. Timothy shouted, and she drew him away from the creature, in case it hadn't actually been dead.

Now, reliving the moment he died and seeing the life in him still, she thought back on yesterday, She'd slipped up, her arm had gotten caught in the bars, and yet he'd waited for her to drop the meat and retract her arm before he surged forward for the food. He could have grabbed her, torn her to shreds, but he waited. Now, she saw he hadn't even eaten what she put in. She had but one explanation, he had control. No more was the disease in control, and she wondered if it would have been this easy had she not been able to connect to him personally.

Nisha stepped closer to the cage, and she was startled as he took a step back. She pressed further still, and as he took a second step back she saw his mouth open and thought she heard him protest... But her attention was drawn away as the perimeter alarm rang out. Nisha lept back as Timothy ran to the bars, she wiped some viscera he spat off her face. Her heart raced, but the overwhelming screech of the alarm had her hobbling back away from the ravenous monster for a moment.

She turned to run, grabbing her weapons belt and donning it as she did. Taking a peep out the second story, Nisha saw a figure standing in the yard. It wasn't a zombie, that was good. Flicking the switch, she disarmed the warning. She didn't want to call any monsters there, not if this proved hostile. There'd be no distinction between the hoard and Timothy, and she couldn't have that. No, she had to go out and meet them.

Nisha shrugged on her vest and headed outside slowly, “Who are you? I'm armed.”

“It's me,” the voice that rang out startled Nisha as much as anything she could have imagined, and she had a very vivid imagination. She dropped her gun to her hip and stepped into the light, seeing the other more clearly now.

“Athena? No... I thought you were dead,” Nisha felt something leave her lips for the first time in one hundred and sixty nine days, a laugh. She surged forward and both women embraced the other, laughter ringing out in the silence as they enjoyed the other's confirmed existence. Pulling away, Nisha looked Athena up and down, “You don't look any different than the last time I saw you. I'm glad you got out of that swarm alive...”

Athena did the same, sizing up her old friend, “Nice new piece, Kadam. What happened?”

Nisha couldn't help but notice Athena's hand drift to her weapon, not that she could blame her she'd have done the same, “Oh, the arm? You like? Got my arm caught in a cinch, bastard who set it was z-bait. Had to cut myself loose, found this one in the children's ward of a hospital. The stickers were all me, though.”

With a laugh, Nisha hoped Athena would buy her bluff. As good as it was seeing a familiar face, she couldn't risk Athena seeing Timothy. When the outbreak first shot out, Nisha met Athena in the first month. Both of them had each other's back for almost a year, before Nisha had gotten back to Timothy. Back then, Athena and her were called the Gladiator and the Lawbringer, for good reason. Both women knew the other was deadly, and both knew the other was capable of some crazy shit. Nisha had seen Athena forced to kill her own sister, and well Athena had seen the shit Nisha had done to get back to Tim.

Nisha couldn't blame Athena for the caution, and she respected the woman for seeing through the lie. What she didn't expect was Athena pushing and insisting to come in. They'd known each other pretty well, even if it was reluctantly, so it wasn't a surprise Athena could tell Nisha was hiding. She just hoped she could pass it off as something else.

“Yeah, sure... C'mon in for a drink,” Nisha led her inside and quickly moved to pour the only thing she had, hooch she'd brewed herself. It was bad. It _defined_ 'bad'. Still, it did the job. She handed Athena a shot and took one herself, pouring another to toast with an old friend.

“To surviving, any means necessary,” the bitter taste of the toast tore down both of their throats. As Nisha turned to pour another, she almost dropped the glasses as a howling screeched out through the house. Once again, time ran twice as slow, Nisha turned to Athena to see her raising her weapon.

“No! Athena! Weapons down, it's alright. It's a beast, I caught it and I'm keeping it in a cage. The thing keeps the others away, I think they're territorial. It's how I've survived this long,” Once again, she prayed Athena took the bait and left it well enough alone. Once again, she was wrong, “Athena. Stop. Please.”

One look from Athena had Nisha chasing her down, the descent into the basement was frenzied and dangerous. Nisha tried to pull at Athena's clothes, get her to stop without killing her, but she only just barely managed to get in front of her at the door, “Out of the way, Kadam. I don't want to hurt you, but these things are beasts to be put down. Keeping one is dangerous.”

Nisha protested as Athena went under her arms, flinging open the red room door as another shriek called out through the corridor. The gasp that escaped Athena's lips told Nisha the secret was out, “Listen, Athena... It's not what you think...”

“That's Timothy... Timothy... What a sweet kid, he didn't deserve this,” Nisha felt the tears well up in her eyes as Athena pushed past. She turned to watch her step into the room, but as soon as Athena raised her gun, Nisha was between the two.

“Athena, no. Listen to me, _please._ He's- He's getting better... I've spent almost two hundred days figuring it out, and I've made progress. Please, I'm begging you, just listen to my recordings and you'll know it's true,” Nisha raised her arms as Athena raised her gun, and Timothy snarled behind her. The silence between them only drew attention to what happened next.

Neither could have expected it, Timothy himself certainly couldn't either, as the zombie croaked out behind Nisha, “A.....theeeeee....na?”

Nisha turned slowly, her heart stopped, and she stepped closer to the bars. His eyes were no longer cloudy, and his face had lifted since she saw him not ten minutes ago. The meat was still scattered on the floor, and as she turned her sobs turned to a smile.

Then the gunshot rang through the room.

“N.....iiiiish?”


End file.
